Elections - Northwest Valley Schools

County delays action on WV school-district elections

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has delayed action on a proposal to cancel school board elections in 20 West Valley school districts because there are no contests for the Nov. 4 ballot.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Friday tabled the proposal to its Sept. 12 meeting.

Canceling the elections would save school districts money in election costs. Most of the targeted districts have enough candidates for all or some of their open seats in part because write-in candidates met last week's filing deadline. Additional school district elections could be canceled depending on the outcome of court challenges against candidate nominating petitions this week.

Board members oversee school district budgets and determine employee salaries. They dictate what curriculum and textbooks are used and have the final say in a variety of areas, including school start times, calendars and attendance boundaries.

Western Maricopa Education Center has elections for three seats proposed to be canceled but a fourth four-year seat will have a runoff between candidates Randy Jackson and Joe Holcombe for Subdistrict 4.

Meanwhile, the county Superintendent of Schools office will appoint board members after terms start in January for Aguila's four seats and Paloma's three seats that have no candidates in the November election. Litchfield and Tolleson Elementary each have no candidates for one open seat and Wickenburg has no candidates for two open seats.

Write-in candidates who filed by the Aug. 20 deadline (for board races that had no contested races) include:

 Western Maricopa Education Center: Write-in candidate Patricia Galbraith is the only candidate for the four-year seat for Subdistrict 3 and write-in candidate John Atkins is the only candidate for the four-year seat for Subdistrict 5.

In board races in which there are more than one person competing for open seats, the deadline is 5 p.m. Sept. 25 to file to be a write-in candidate. Glendale Elementary is one of the hottest races in the Valley with seven people competing for three four-year terms.

For information about school board elections, go to maricopa.gov/schools.